# Mamoun Benkirane

> Mamoun Benkirane is the co-founder and CEO of MarketLeap, an AI-driven operating system that helps direct-to-consumer brands sell and scale across global online marketplaces. A former Amazon and Jumia executive who built and expanded marketplaces across Europe and Africa, he started MarketLeap after realizing that even the biggest platforms left independent sellers drowning in fragmented data and complexity. Backed by an $8M Series A led by Smedvig Ventures in 2025, MarketLeap now operates across 30+ countries and is expanding into Madrid and New York.

- **Role:** Co-founder & CEO at MarketLeap
- **Organizations:** MarketLeap, Amazon, Jumia, Booz & Company (Strategy&)
- **Education:** Bachelor's and Master's in Engineering and Operations Research, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)
- **Known for:** Built and scaled multiple marketplaces to over $100M worldwide, Led Amazon's marketplace expansion into several European countries, Drove Jumia's growth across 14 African markets

## Career timeline

- **Early career** — Management consultant at Booz & Company (later Strategy&), advising retail and tech leaders across EMEA
- **Jumia** — Led ecommerce growth across 14 African countries; served as Chief Marketing Officer
- **Amazon** — Led multi-billion-dollar marketplace expansion across Europe including Poland, Switzerland, Turkey, Netherlands, Sweden and Belgium
- **2022** — Co-founded MarketLeap in October 2022 with Mekki Mouaddeb
- **2025** — Raised $8M Series A led by Smedvig Ventures; expanded to 30+ countries and opened offices in Madrid and New York

## Achievements

- Built and scaled multiple marketplaces to over $100M worldwide
- Led Amazon's marketplace expansion into several European countries
- Drove Jumia's growth across 14 African markets
- Co-founded MarketLeap and raised $10.7M total, including an $8M Series A in February 2025
- Grew MarketLeap's customer base 340% year-over-year by end of 2024
- Scaled MarketLeap to operate across 30+ countries

## Latest updates

- **2025-02** — MarketLeap raised an $8M Series A led by Smedvig Ventures, with plans to open offices in Madrid and New York and expand automation and real-time analytics.
- **2025-03** — Benkirane shared his view in an AiThority interview that the next wave of AI breakthroughs will come from applied AI rather than larger language models.

## Links

- Website: https://marketleap.ai
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mamounbenkirane
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/market_leap

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/mamoun-benkirane
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-15